{Problem Babble}

Our oldest daughter Chloe is 2 years old and 3 months. She is the most amazing kid. She is wonderful in every way. She is smart, beautiful, charming, and a social butterfly. She and her sister are our pride and joy and me and my husband love them both very much. She is our first child, our Guinea pig. She is the one we have worried about fretted over, had countless conversations on how to parent better. Over these past few years filled with children, we have learned and grown as individuals each day, taking everything in strides. 


Before our second daughter came along Chloe was advancing like crazy. She started fully walking at 9 months, she was talking and by a year old she was using sentences and phrases. At that point her vocabulary was expanding exponentially. Every time she'd wake up in the morning or from a nap she would shout, "Brian, I am up" {Brian is my husband}. This made us laugh a little, okay a lot. She had character and was amazing us everyday. 


Well, a little more than 6 months ago, she started regressing and over these 6 months she her vocabulary has dwindled down to nearly pure babble. Her daily vocabulary is just 7 words and in the past 6 months the most words I have heard her say was 25. Everyone kept saying that she will get it one day and that talking would click, but we were still worried because she was talking. When a child regresses, it is usually because of something traumatic like a bad fall or a big change in their lives. For us the only thing that changed a while ago was that we brought our second child into the world about 9 months ago. Anyway, over these past few months our worry got too big for us to just say "Talking will just click". We decided that she needed to see her pediatrician. I was very nervous the morning of. Before this day, all I ever did was sing her praises and now I would have to admit that there is a problem. I felt like a failure and a bad mom. I thought that if I read to her through out the day, drilled words and was constantly trying to get her to talk, she would. I thought I could fix this on my own. 


Our pediatrician is amazing. Chloe was assessed for autism and various tests. She passed all of them if you don't count the fact that her speech has regressed so much. By the end of the appointment her doctor decided that we needed to get in contact with a speech pathologist and a Audiological to check her hearing. Well this week we had both appointments. Honestly, we were both freaking out. Tuesday the speech pathologist came and evaluated her. She definitely saw that Chloe is an amazing kid and very smart, but noticed that her "babble" is an odd babble. She told us that she is interested to know the results of the hearing test, which seriously made me cry internally and once she left, I did. I am happy to report that she was accepted into the program {Which means it's free} and now Chloe will be getting one on one speech therapy once a week. Our speech pathologist is amazing and is encouraging us to learn sign language to us be able to understand and communicate some with our little lady. So, for two days we freaked out. What if our child had a hearing problem? What if there was something wrong? Thursday Morning was our oncology appointment and when it finally arrived, I had butterflies in my tummy. I had both girls with me and they were both tired so it was a nightmare. Both kids were crying and when one would stop, the other would start which was difficult because we needed to be quiet and not make a sound in the booth to test her hearing. Finally, we got her to calm down. Thank god for suckers and the doctors who always keep them in stock. Once the test was over, I was received to find that her hearing is normal and any that she has really good ability to tune things out when she is focused. When I was showing her a book in the testing room, she didn't listen to any sounds but once she heard the first one {after the book was done}, she heard every sound. So, check that off the freak out list. 


Now, we are signing with her {I use to sign as a child myself for years and took college courses too, so it's coming back very quickly to me}. Her weekly speech therapy will start in 3 weeks and I can't wait. 


It took some time to realize that this is a problem I can't fix on my own. I need help to fix this problem. I also understand that not everything can be fixed by just me, and it's okay to ask for help. It doesn't mean I am a failure, even though that is too easy to believe. These past few weeks have truly been a learning experience and a time to grow. 


I will update on progress in some future blog posts. Thank you for taking the time to read this clip from our life.